ANNOUNCER: What is the Judgment Seat of Christ? How should people live because of it? Hello, friend. Welcome to Grace in Focus, a ministry of the Grace Evangelical Society. Our website, faithalone.org is a place where you can find out more about our online seminary. It’s a free seminary and you can earn an MDiv degree. For free, if you maintain a 3.0 average. You can get information about our seminary and also about our upcoming national annual conference in May, 2026. The dates are the 18th through the 21st. We are hoping that you will be there with us. Find out about registration and all of the other details at our website, faithalone.org. 

Now with today’s continuation of our eschatology series, here are Bob Wilkin and Philippe Sterling. 

BOB: We’re discussing eschatology and on our journey in eschatology, we’ve come to what’s called the Judgment Seat of Christ. And the expression, the Judgment Seat of Christ, only occurs twice in the New Testament with the exact words. 2 Corinthians 5:9-10 and Romans 14:10-12, although in the Critical text, which would be your New American Standard, your New International Version, your NET Bible, it reads “the Judgment Seat of God.” But there are lots and lots of references to the Judgment Seat of Christ in New Testament without using those words. 

PHILIPPE: Yes, sometimes it’s just “the day” or 1 Corinthians chapter 3, talking about how we build and how the day will reveal it. 

BOB: And also 1 Corinthians 4, I’m not concerned about any human day, but he’s concerned about the day of Christ. Also, you have the expression, the day of Christ, the day of Jesus Christ, the day of the Lord Jesus. Those all refer to the Judgment Seat of Christ. Or in 1 John 4, he talks about our day of judgment. 1 John 4:17-19. But the word translated “judgment seat” comes from a Greek word bema. And bema means “judgment seat.” And for example, Jesus appeared before Pilate at Pilate’s bema, his judgment seat. And Paul appeared before Gallio at his bema, his judgment seat. And he later appeared before Caesar at his bema or judgment seat. So, judgment seat isn’t just a term related to Jesus’ judging Christians after this age is over. It was a term used throughout the New Testament to refer to a place where judgment took place. 

PHILIPPE: Yes, a lot of the Greek cities, actually, had three-step platforms where the governor, or what I call the mayor of the city, will come and sit and listen to grievances and render judgment. If you ever take a tour of Greek cities, you may actually see bemas. They are in the public square. 

BOB: So, what is the Judgment Seat of Christ? And why, as believers in Jesus Christ, why should we live in light of it? What’s so important about this Judgment Seat of Christ? 

PHILIPPE: It is the evaluation of our works, of our lives, for the purpose of reward, and for the purpose of determining even levels of rulership with Christ. And you’re already referred to the two specific references. To that, the first being Romans 14, verse 10, “But why do you judge your brother, or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ.” So, He will evaluate how we dealt with each other. In 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verses 9 and 10 and following, “Therefore we make it our aim whether present or absent to be well pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.” 

BOB: Yeah, and notice “the whether good or bad.” A lot of people want to translate that “whether good or worthless,” because they want to say our bad deeds won’t be judged at the Judgment Seat of Christ, because of the blood of Christ, right? They say the blood of Christ covers all our sins, and therefore we couldn’t have our bad deeds judged. The problem with that view is in the majority of manuscripts, it reads agathos or kakos, Kakos is evil or bad. But in the Critical text, which you get the New American Standard, the NIV, the NET Bible, the Holman Christian Standard, it reads not kakos, but phaulos. And phaulos is a word that sometimes means worthless, so people say it means worthless here. So it’s good or worthless. The problem is, whenever agathos is the opposite of phaulos in the New Testament, it’s always good or bad. The opposite of good is not worthless. The opposite of good is bad or evil. I would encourage you to do the study, I have, and look up all uses of agathos and phaulos and see the connection, and you’ll see it’s good or bad. Our works are going to be judged at the Judgment Seat of Christ. Not as sins, but as works. And so if they’re bad works, then they’re going to be part of the Judgement. That means that even though we’re forgiven, our bad works will come into play at the Judgment Seat of Christ. 

PHILIPPE: And that’s even how we’ve treated each other within the body of Christ, will be brought up. 

BOB: In fact, Jesus said, “By your words, you will be justified and by your words, you will be condemned.” And I would translate justified there, I might translate it justified, but I would explain it by your words, you will be vindicated. And by your words, you will be condemned. I think that’s looking at the Judgment Seat of Christ for believers. Of course, unbelievers will be judged according to their works as well at the Great White Throne, but those are separated by a thousand years. But there’s basically three things we’ll be judged for at the Judgment Seat of Christ—our works and our words, and then the third thing is our motives. 

PHILIPPE: Yes, everything that is hidden will be brought to light, including our motives. 

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BOB: And so what we ought to recognize is, the Lord Jesus longs to say to us “Well done, good and faithful servant.” He longs to approve of us. He longs to say rule over ten cities or rule over five cities. But that doesn’t mean that’s guaranteed. What’s guaranteed is our eternal salvation, right? Our eternal destiny, John 3:16. Once we believe we’re never going to perish. But that doesn’t mean we are going to necessarily get a good report at the Judgment Seat of Christ. So therefore we ought to strive to be faithful till the end of our lives. 

There’s a parable at the end of Matthew 24, the parable of the just and the unjust servant. And this guy’s doing real well. He’s feeding his fellow servants. If the Lord were to come at that point, he would be made a ruler over all his goods and the life to come. But then the guy says, my Lord delays his coming. 

PHILIPPE: Yes, and then he starts mistreating his fellow servants. 

BOB: And then he begins to drink with who? 

PHILIPPE: The drunkards. It’s almost like perhaps Demas who walked with Paul and served with Paul and then went the way of the world.

BOB: 2 Timothy 4:9-10. Yeah, “Demas has forsaken me having loved this present world.” And so you get the same kind of thing in this where you’ve got a guy who’s doing well. And then he takes his eyes off Christ and His soon returned. He takes his eyes off the Bema. And as a result, he’s going to be rebuked. The Lord says at the Judgment Seat of Christ. And so we need to recognize that the Judgment Seat of Christ is not going to just be an awards ceremony. You know how it is today, everybody gets a trophy? Everybody is going to be told well done good and faithful servant, everybody’s going to rule and reign. No, not everybody’s going to rule and reign. Not everybody is going to be told well done. Look at the parable of the minas in Luke 19. 

PHILIPPE: Yes, the one who did not produce anything. What he had is taken away. 

BOB: And the first guy gets 10 cities. The second guy gets five cities, but the unfaithful guy loses the one he would have had. It’s given to the 10 city guy. So he now has 11 cities to rule over. And this third guy gets into the kingdom, but he’s not praised by Jesus. 

PHILIPPE: And so for us, the Bema, anticipating that can also be strong motivating factor for faithfulness. Just yesterday, I had my annual wellness exam and part of it was my cholesterol check. And usually I have high cholesterol, but year by year, the goal is to get better. And I did well yesterday. I had better physical health. We want also at the  Bema to be spiritually healthy and revealed as spiritually healthy. But also rewardable. And many people, of course, have annual performance reviews. The performance is evaluated for the year and sometimes leading to promotion, increase in salary, and sometimes not too. So the Bema, in essence, is a performance review for reward, for rulership and also for spiritual health. 

BOB: But there will be rebuke and there will be shame. Remember, 1 John 2:28, John says my little children abide in Him.So that we may have confidence and not shrink back in shame at His parousia, at His coming. Let me mention five motivations for service real quick. Number one, love and gratitude. We’re so grateful for what Christ has done for us. We love Him. That’s a great motive to serve Him. But number two, a sense of duty. It’s just the right thing for me to do to serve the Creator. Number three, because I want rewards here and now. God rewards faithfulness in this life. We don’t have to wait to the Judgment Seat of Christ to get blessed. We get blessed here too. Number four, to avoid chastisement now. We don’t want God’s hand of judgment on us. And number five, the Judgment Seat of Christ. We want praise and approval and reward at the Judgment Seat of Christ. We don’t want shame and a rebuke at the Judgment Seat of Christ. 

And I should mention if we have any shame or rebuke at the Judgment Seat of Christ, it’s not like we’re going to be bummed out forever. Some Christians don’t like the whole idea of the Judgment Seat of Christ because they think how could there be anything negative? Well, the truth is we’re going to have glorified bodies. We’re going to get over any grief in a matter of moments, seconds, and we’ll be perfectly joyful and contented forever. But some people are going to have more abundant lives than others. Right? Jesus said, I’ve come that you might have life and that you might have it more abundantly. Well, that’s true in this life. It’s true in the life to come. So live in light of Christ’s soon return. 

PHILIPPE: And the Bema will occur sometime before the establishment of the millennial kingdom. Some of course, think it may have occurred during that seven-year period in the heavenlies with Christ, but it might on earth itself that judgment will take place and then going on into the kingdom and the world established for us. 

BOB: Absolutely. Either way, we’re going to appear before Christ and we’re going to long to hear Him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Wouldn’t that be great? Well, thanks so much. Remember, keep grace in focus. 

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On our next episode: everything you ever wanted to know about the Millennium. Please join us and until then, let’s keep grace in focus.